Feral
by Aloikey
Summary: The survivors stumble upon a young hunter, and they soon find out he isnt normal. Ellis battles insticts, while the survivors fight to stay alive with him around. Father/son relationship, Hunter!Ellis AU and OOC
1. Chapter 1

Feral

Chapter 1

Nick knew today was not going to be a good day. He had woken up with Coach and Rochelle in the safe room, only to find that it was already raining. Not a good way to start off the day, especially if you're like Nick. Normally he was pissed at everyone at everything, but the rain made him even more unbearable.

And this feeling was getting on his nerves. He hadn't decided if this was a feeling of doom or change. He didn't like any of these options, so he shrugged it off. The sooner he forgot about it the better.

* * *

><p>The hunter stared down at the creature from up at his perch, an unlucky tree. His presence would leave claw marks, he was sure. The creature was sniffing around his tree, until it caught his scent. His breathing stopped, as he watched it. He was waiting for any hostile threats, and when he saw none he started the think. He was sure he knew what this creature was called; he just couldn't wrap his finger around it. When he was almost positive it wasn't going to attack him, he jumped down. The creature immediately ran for him, licking his face with its long tongue.<p>

"Dog!" He squealed, finally realizing was the creature was. Going against the instinct that rang through the back of his mind to attack the creature he rubbed his clawed hand through its hair. He did so softly so he didn't hurt it like he had done to his faithful perch. Growling contently, he failed to hear the approaching footsteps.

"It sounds like a hunter, guys," a female voice sounded from behind the dog. He instantly hid; clutching the dog like it was his life line. The dog didn't care, and turned towards the survivors. Careful not to whimper, he kept is bright blue eyes open, ready to run if need be. He had seen what people had done to his brethren.

"Or a dog," a dry, sarcastic voice answered, mocking the one that spoke. The female snorted, obviously not affected by his words.

"It's alright baby girl, Nick's just being Nick," a final, deeper voice entered the air.

"Yeah, an ass," She said, but it was half heartedly spoken.

He heard the footsteps coming closer, and the female reached to rub the dog, but he growled.

"Be careful Rochelle, that dog is dangerous," The older man instructed.

"Yeah, and we don't have time to be wasting on this dog. We might as well kill it; put it out of its misery in this world. Might even have the infection," Nick said, reaching for his pistol. The boy didn't understand many words, but he understood kill. He immediately took the threat seriously, not wanting his dog to be hurt. Going against his better judgment, and his instincts, he released a deeper growl then the dog. The sound surprised everyone in the group, making them bunch together.

"So there is a hunter," the woman said. When nothing happened for a moment all of them walked closer to his dog. He knew he had no chance against one of them, let alone all of them, so he did the only thing he could. He cried. Of course it didn't come out as a sob, only an ear splitting screech that gave away his position. Hugging the dog tighter, he waited for them to find him.

Pistols raised, he found all three guns pointed at him. He flinched, snuggling into the dog, who was growling protectively. The animal felt the boys fear and decided he needed to protect him from the others, almost like they were pack.

There was silence until a man with green eyes pulled the trigger. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion to him, and all he heard was the deafening sound of the gun. He knew it was going to hit him; he couldn't get his legs to move. After a few seconds he waited to feel the pain, but when he felt none he looked up. His dog was laying on the ground panting heavily, blood soaking into his golden coat. At first he couldn't comprehend what happened until he heard the man that shot the gun.

"Damn, the dog jumped in front of _it_," His words were filled with venom, but he didn't care, he finally understood what happened. The dog had taken the bullet for him. Screeching as loud as he could, he ran over to his fallen friend.

"Doggy?" He asked, sniffling as the dog didn't respond.

"Did… Did it just talk?" The female asked, surprised.

"Well damn, you don't think it's a normal boy do you?" The big male asked, nervous that they had almost killed a little boy.

"No, it's most definitely a hunter," the green eyed man had said, and he immediately recognized him as Nick.

"Then you shoot it! I can't… he looks so much like a little boy… the poor thing lost his only companion," the female said, looking away.

"Yes, and he will tear you to shreds the moment you go to hug him!" Nick shouted at her.

"Now Nick, calm down," the older male turned his attention to the saddened female, "You ignore him Rochelle, but he's right. You're the mothering type and you could forget he was a hunter in your attempt to comfort him."

"I know Coach," She said nothing else as she wiped a lone tear from her eye. The boy, instantly feeling bad, jumped over to her. Before the others realized what happened, he was hugging her legs.

"You… not…. cry," The sentence wasn't complete but Rochelle understood immediately. The little boy, a hunter, was trying to comfort her.

"Shit! He's to close if we shoot we might miss and hit Ro," Nick shouted to Coach, who hastily agreed. Before they could get any closer to 'save' Rochelle, she bent down to the hunter's level. Ignoring the yells from the two men she hesitantly wrapped her arms around the hunter. Instead of slashing her to bits like a normal hunter would do, he leaned into her hug. Sighing contently, he stayed there, glancing at the other humans in the group.

"What the hell!" Nick yelled ignoring the glare Rochelle was giving him.

"Well boys, I think we have another member for our group!" She said excitedly, almost forgetting their new survivor was an infected.

But then the boy remembered what had happened to his canine. And to get revenge him, he went after the one who shot the gun.

Nick.

* * *

><p>Yeah! I just felt like posting this... so yes! Im not sure if anyone reads these anymore... so ill continue if i get 20 hits! It would be great to get reviews, alerts, or favs, but they arnt needed.<p>

To explain this a little more, this story takes place at the same time, but everyone was born later on. Oh yea, and Hunter!Ellis.. :D

Ages:

Coach- 40

Rochelle- 19

Nick- 20

Ellis- 5

I know the ages arnt exact, becase there is a 12 year diffrence between Nick and Ellis, but i wanted it to be this way. So yeah...

And that dog, was Ellis's before the infection hit. Ellis just forgot about him when he turned.

~ LA

Disclaimer: I dont own anything!


	2. Chapter 2

Feral

Chapter 2

The boy bunched his legs up, in a crouching position, before launching himself at Nick. Nick stumbled at the hit, but didn't fall. Luckily for Nick, the hunter understood he would be killed if he started tearing up his body. So instead he pounded his little fists on the man's body, mindful of his claws.

The two watching had no idea what to say or do, so they stayed silent.

"Why…?" The boys small voice floated to the ears of the ones situated there. The punches had stopped, instead tears fell from the boys eyes as he screeched. Nick was unsure of what to do, glancing at his team for support. He received nothing, as they too had no idea how to calm the crying boy. The four of them stood there for what seemed hours –it was really only five minutes- until the boy calmed down.

Rochelle finally walked forward, prying the boy from Nick's chest. As she removed him, she noticed his once white suite was covered in blood and tears. Glancing down at the boy that was now clinging to her, she noticed the blood that covered his mouth and nose. Ignoring the pang of fear that coursed through her, she set him down gently on the ground.

"Sweetie, we're all really sorry about what happened to your dog," Rochelle whispered gently, stroking his back to offer him comfort. He seemed to calm a little at this, and he glanced up at her. It was the first time she really got a good look at his face. His cheeks were thin, giving him a malnourished appearance. He probably was malnourished, unless he had done what she was afraid of. Once again pushing the thought, and the emotion off, she continued studying him. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a battered piece of cloth. She used it to wipe the most recent of the blood off, leaving the rest to be taken care of later.

Coach had finally recovered from the shock of the boy crying, and he slowly walked over to where the boy and Rochelle were.

"Do you remember your name, boy?" He asked softly so he didn't startle the boy. The hunter, finally realizing the man had gotten closer, turned to stare at the moment. He paused for a few moments, before giving an affirmative nod.

"El…Elli…ss…Ellis!" the boy -now Ellis- had problems pronouncing his name. It came out as growls at first, but he managed to piece them together enough for the survivors to understand.

"Ok, Ellis sweetie, we have to get going," Rochelle said, cooing slightly. She stuck her hand out, waiting for Ellis to grab her hand. He stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, before placing his smaller hand in hers; securing his claws so they didn't hurt her. She gave him a bright smile, before grabbing her pistol from the ground and turning to face the boys.

"Alright, let's go then. We want to make it to the safe room before night fall!" she said cheerfully, almost as if the zombie apocalypse wasn't actually happening. Coach grunted his agreement, glancing over his shoulder to look at Nick. He was just coming out his day dream as Coach bellowed at him to 'hurry up'.

With the little hunter by her side, Rochelle took the lead of the little group. Coach followed closely behind, with Nick bringing up the rear. He still appeared in a dazed state, not sure of what to think of the little guy. But he did know one thing, and it scared him.

He was feeling guilty. Normally guilt scares people for a different reason then Nick's. Once it gets a hold of you, it's hard to let it go. In the worst cases, it even tears at the person until they can't take it anymore. Guilt in itself didn't bother Nick, because that's all it was to him, an emotion. He was scared because it was such a long time since he _felt _guilt. He wasn't sure how to handle it. So he did what he always did, he pushed it away.

* * *

><p>The group had walked behind a few buildings to avoid the main street. It was to save ammo and to keep Ellis safe. So far everything was fine, they had only run into a few common infected. But eventually they had to enter the big road, because the safe room was right across from it. It looked like a survivor-made safe room, by the fact that the door wasn't barred like the ones CEDA had set up. It was still steel, and from across the road (they assumed it was a major roadway, but Coach couldn't recognize it) and thankfully it looked sturdy.<p>

Glancing around, they shot all the common infected they could see, before running for the door. Halfway across the road they heard the pounding of heavy feet on the pavement. Being the quickest, Rochelle turned around to see a charger headed right for them.

"Charger!" She yelled as loud as she could as the special infected roared, tearing towards them like a raging bull. Ellis didn't really understand what was going on, but he saw his brethren running right towards him. The charger and tank were very much alike; the tank was just harder to kill. They both had no respect for their fellow infected, tending to run them over then give them a chance to move. He had experienced this when a fellow hunter hadn't moved during one of his attacks on the survivors. They hadn't been able to shoot him, but the charger ran him over, and snapped his spine like a twig. He didn't have a chance, so since then Ellis avoided both the bigger infected.

Jumping right when the charger reached them, he landed softly on the hood of an adjacent car. He watched as the trio shot at the charging infected, giving a satisfied grunt when he fell right in front of Coach. Before he knew it the survivors where across the street and he was still studying the dead charger. Squealing in surprise, he ran on all fours towards the safety of the house. As soon as he bounded in, Coach slammed the door shut, giving an evil grin to the common outside of the door. Ellis turned his attention away from him, to look at the other two who were panting slightly in a pair of chairs.

Unsure of what to do, he crouched on the ground, staring at his bloodied claws. Just when he was about to start licking them clean, Rochelle appeared.

"Let's go give you a bath sweetie," At the thought of getting wet, he hissed, jumping on top of one of the counter in the nearby kitchen. All three non-infected jumped at his hiss, giving him nervous glances. Realizing he had scared them with his way of saying no, he whimpered. Huddling in the corner of the counter, he refused to look at any of them for the next hour. He didn't need to look at them to smell their fear, after all.

* * *

><p>Still slightly anxious of what he did earlier, he finally showed his face. None of the three were there, but he could hear their voices in the other room.<p>

"It isn't safe to keep him, Rochelle, and you know it!" He heard Nick's voice, a harsh whisper. Had he still been a normal human he would not have been able to hear it, but granted with his hunter abilities all of his senses were more sensitive.

"Look, it was my fault! I shouldn't have assumed he would be ok with taking a bath. He's just a little boy, Nick," Rochelle protested, sticking up for him.

"He's not human anymore, I mean come _on_. He acts more like a cat than a human, and I'm sure he has infected parents somewhere! Let them take care of him!"

"How the hell would we _find_ them? It's a zombie apocalypse, what are we supposed to do? Walk up to a pair of infected and ask, hey, is this your child?" Rochelle yelled, mocking Nick with her words. Coach, who had been quiet the whole time, finally intervened.

"Now, let's calm down. You're both right in a way, Ellis is dangerous but we can't just leave him to be all by himself. Those people out there might have lost their humanity, but we haven't. We'll talk more of this in the morning, alright?" Ellis assumed they nodded, because he didn't hear another word from any of the survivors.

Thinking back to what Nick said, he felt that he couldn't blame him. If anything, he was the one who felt guilty. He had lashed out at poor Rochelle when she only wanted to clean him off, but he wouldn't hear it. First of all, he _hated _water, and it was third biggest enemy. The first being other infected (special or common) and the second being instincts. The part of him that was the hunter dearly wanted to murder the survivors while they slept. But he had successfully kept that side subdued, and he was adamant to keep it that way.

Not wanting to think about anything else, he jumped down from the counter and onto the rug. Curling up in a tight ball by the door, he fell into a dreamless sleep. For that he was happy, because otherwise they would have been filled with nightmares. Memories might have been a better term for it, though.

Sunlight shone in from the cracks in the steel door, making the room seem almost peaceful. That thought was broken quickly afterwards, because when Ellis got out of his dazed stated he immediately heard the moans from the infected outside. Glancing around the room he noticed none of the survivors had come in the room, nor did he smell them in the house. Confused, he slowly got up, stretching, and pranced into the kitchen area where he had heard them last night. He got a faint scent of them, but it was stale as they hadn't been there since the argument. Following the trail of where their scent went next, it led him to a small staircase. Carefully, he put one foot on the first step. When nothing happened, he put his hand on the next step up. Crawling (Or climbing, because that was how Ellis saw it as) up the stairs slowly, he made sure to avoid the weaker parts to avoid making any noises. When he reached the top of the staircase he heard the soft breathing of all the survivors, each in their separate rooms.

He walked until he was at the first door, clueless as to who was in it. All three scents of the survivors coated the door and floor near it. Ignoring the fear of Nick being in the room, he scratched at the door before pushing it open.

Nick. It was Nick. He couldn't have more unlucky unless there was a tank snoring in the room. (Which he had actually heard, their snores were so loud he felt it could vibrate the ground if they tried enough).

Anxiously he walked up to the sleeping form of them man, jumping noiselessly on the bed. After staring at Nick for a few minutes, he got tired of waiting for him to get up. Poking Nick's side gently with his claw, he was shocked when he was suddenly hit. Ellis's small frame was scent flying when Nick hit him full force. Gasping in pain when he hit the wall, he felt his already bad vision blurring. Hissing in pain, the last thing he saw was Nick standing over him, shaking him. He felt the concern in Nick's touch, and somehow it comforted him. Feeling safe, Ellis drifted into a void of darkness, faintly feeling himself reach for Nick. He never made it the full way.

* * *

><p><strong>AN-** Sorry it took so long to update, I had a few family issues. And besides that, eveytime i sat down to type, I would have to go do something. Then that 'one' thing turned into five. So yeah, once again sorry! I got 20 views within a few hours of posting so i was gonna update it the next day.. but it never happened. -.-

Well anyway thanks for your reviews, alerts and favs! They mean a lot! :D

And a special thanks to Brett F for reminding me about my disclaimer! :)

**Disclaimer**: I dont own the L4d universe, Valve does.

I also changed the summary... cause i didnt like the old one.

I hope to have the next chapter up by the weekend... but when i set a date it usually doesnt get done. Oh well.

LA


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